Carlos Sainz Jr. has been overshadowed by Max Verstappen in his career, claims the Spanaird's father

Carlos Sainz's father feels that his son has been overshadowed by Max Verstappen in his career, and a lot of it had to do with the fact that both drivers started their careers together at Toro Rosso. Sainz and Verstappen made their debut together in the Red Bull sister team.

While Verstappen was a teenager at the time, Sainz was not much older either. They were quite ferocious within the team and always wanted to get the better of one another. While this was going on, Verstappen got an abrupt jump to Red Bull after a few races in his second season.

The jump meant that while Verstappen was now a part of the top car, Sainz was re-signed to a role in the junior team. Things were to change soon, however, as the Spaniard moved to Renault in 2017. After spending a season with the French team, he moved to McLaren and then eventually to Ferrari.

Through all of this, Carlos Sainz achieved plaudits from different corners but he is not ranked on the same level as Max Verstappen. Talking about this on the podcast El Cafelito, Sainz Sr. felt that with both joining the sport at the same time, his son has been overshadowed because of what Verstappen has been doing in F1. He said:

"I think Carlos, because of his personality and because he comes after Fernando (Alonso), has not been given the value and quality that he has. He also coincides with Verstappen. And at some point Red Bull chooses Verstappen and he remains a bit in the shadows..."

He added:

"Then he ends up driving for Ferrari and that's not easy. I think the best version of Carlos is yet to come. He's a driver who is making steps and it seems like he's showing the best version of himself every year. There are drivers who get there very quickly, give everything and then stagnate or fall back. But Carlos keeps improving every year."

Helmut Marko on Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz's relationship at Torro Rosso

Red Bull's Helmut Marko recently addressed the relationship that Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen had at Torro Rosso and the Austrian would term it "toxic", claiming that he could not see a way the squad could keep the Spaniard after that. He said:

"The atmosphere between the two was quite toxic at Toro Rosso. With the team compositions as they were at the time, I didn't see a way we could keep Carlos. That's how he ended up at Ferrari via Renault and McLaren ."

Carlos Sainz will be beginning a new journey with Williams in 2025 where he hopes to rebuild the team back to its old glory days.